The National Secular Society, to which our group is affiliated, works towards a society in which all citizens, regardless of religious belief, or lack of religious belief, can live together fairly and cohesively; it campaigns for a secular democracy with a separation of religion and state, where everyone's Human Rights are respected equally.

Terry Sanderson has been President of the NSS since 2008. Prior to that he was for many years a gay activist. In his recent autobiography, ?The Adventures of a Happy Homosexual?, he writes: ?At the beginning of this story I, along with every other gay man in the country, was a sexual outlaw. If I had expressed my sexual preference for those of my own sex I could have ended up in prison. Now, six decades later, I am about to exercise my option to be married to my male partner. During that same period, religion has staged a revival that could conceivably reverse everything that gay people have achieved. In Europe, only a few short years ago, religion was regarded as being in its death throes. Now it is renewing itself in new and more frightening forms, with the potential to threaten us all.?

Is he right? Is religion still a threat to us all? If so, what can or should we do about it? Discuss these issues with Terry, and with Keith Porteous-Wood, NSS General Secretary, who will also be attending.

21 January: New Year Lunch

This will be at the Russell Arms, Butlers Cross on Saturday 21 January.

Tuesday 14 February Wendover Library 8 pm

Peter Naish

Senior lecturer in cognitive psychology at The Open University.

The Consciousness Conundrum

What is consciousness, and how do physical processes in the brain give rise to the subjective life of a conscious mind?

Simple animals like the amoeba presumably have no such experience, since they have no brain or nervous system, yet they can react to their surroundings well enough to survive without it. Many of our own cognitive functions such as perceiving objects, making decisions, and even performing apparently voluntary actions can take place without consciousness intervening, but if we can function without conscious awareness, why should consciousness be there at all? Is consciousness just an accidental by-product of having a large brain, or has it been selected for by evolution because creatures with consciousness have improved prospects for survival? Historically, questions about the ?hard problem? of consciousness have primarily been a topic for philosophers, but advances in neuroscience are bringing us closer to a scientific understanding.

Peter Naish is a senior lecturer in cognitive psychology at The Open University. He will be revealing many of the latest developments in our efforts to unravel the mysteries of consciousness.